Fate is in Bermuda’s hands

It’s all up for grabs for Bermuda. 

And the cricket team is walking the tightrope of being both promoted and demoted.

The squad had its best batting effort in the Pepsi World Cricket League Division 3 Tournament as it beat Italy by 26 runs yesterday.

Bermuda marched its way to 250 with Lionel Cann nearly scoring half the runs with a thrilling 113, which saw him swat the ball about Somerset with ease.  He had 11 6’s and six fours in 48 balls.

Cann built upon a solid foundation built by Tre Manders, who made his tournament debut with a 64, which would have been Bermuda’s high score in four games if it hadn’t been for Lionel.

Things did not start so well for Bermuda as openers Chris Douglas and Dion Stovell had a short morning at the wicket. Douglas was bowled on the first ball he faced from Gayashan Munasinghe and Stovell departed with Bermuda at 14/2. 

Manders and captain Stephen Outerbridge then had a 48-run partnership that helped move the island in the right direction. 

After Outerbridge had to take a seat after being out lbw, David Hemp joined Manders at the wicket for another 54 runs.

Bermuda kept ticking along, not suffering from any of the terrible batting spells from the previous day which saw wickets tumble in bunches.

That set the scene for a thrilling 67-run partnership between Cann and Malachi Jones. The pair raced Bermuda’s score from 190/7 to 257/8 in less than eight overs.

When all was said and done, Rodney Trott was the last man out as Bermuda exhausted the last ball of its allotted overs.

Italy’s openers struggled out of the gate and they were quickly 15/2. They sort of meandered their way through their innings — never really looking like a serious threat to win the match, but never really falling so far behind that a Bermuda victory looked like a foregone conclusion either.

Quickly

The Italians made that ground up quickly as Carl Sandri took the last ball of the 43rd over for a six off of Janeiro Tucker then proceeded to get two more sixes in the 44th.

And just like that Italy made a game of it. 

When Jones coaxed Sandri to sky a shot to Manders, Italy were at 223/9 and still had 38 balls left to get the 28 runs needed.

Any tension the Bermuda fans might have been feeling was quickly released as Jones then bowled the last batsmen out thanks to some nifty wicketkeeping by Douglas. 

Uganda did Bermuda a favour by defeating the United States, whom the squad plays on Saturday. It gives the island hope of finishing second and earning the right of promotion. 

Bermuda will have to get a big win to help reverse the run rate differential between the two, but it will also be looking for the Italians to help out by defeating Nepal, who also have two victories and a better run rate than Bermuda.

The flip side is that a thrashing by the United States could send Bermuda crashing into Division 4.

Oman is below Bermuda in the table, along with winless Italy. They face Uganda, so while a win wouldn’t be a punter’s first choice, it still leaves Bermuda with the unsavoury prospect that it is still a possibility. n